


Happy Valentine's Day

by drandmrsbanner



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bruce Banner - Freeform, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Bullying, Child Abuse, Child Bruce, One-Shot, Pansexual Bruce Banner, Please read and review!, Rejection, Sad Ending, Young Bruce, domestic abuse, it's my first Ao3 fanfic, so cut me some slack, sorry if it sucks, there's a junie b. jones reference in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 17:53:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4574112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drandmrsbanner/pseuds/drandmrsbanner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sad one-shot about a young Bruce Banner on Valentine's Day. Slight child/domestic abuse mentions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Valentine's Day

Young Bruce Banner glanced around his third grade classroom nervously as he sat in his seat and waited for the time to pass out valentines to start. As usual, he had a bag of small, store-bought valentines for everyone in his class, but also sitting on his desk was a card that he had spent all night making with the help of his mother, along with a small box of chocolates, and flowers from his mother's garden. They were tulips, which his mother had told him everyone loved. The flowers were bound together with a red ribbon curled at the end, something else Rebecca had assisted him with. The card, the flowers, the chocolates...those were for his actual Valentine.

He'd even dressed for the occasion as well. The little boy's brown hair was neatly slicked and combed back, though he had one small curl in the front that fell out of place and rested still quite adorably against his forehead. His purple button-up shirt had been ironed by his mother, and there wasn't a single wrinkle to be found, the same able to be said about his black dress pants. It was a relief to little Bruce that his father had not been present for any of this, as the mean-spirited man would've greatly mocked him for it, as he did with most things. And then the mocking turned into Brian yelling at Rebecca for making their son even more of a "freak", which turned into her boldly sticking up for her son like any mother would, and then ended in hits, kicks, slaps, scratches. Cussing, yelling, screaming, crying.

Bruce clenched his eyes shut and sank into his seat a little as he put his hands on each side of his head. He took deep breaths in, then out, and then began to think happy thoughts, like his mother had taught him to do whenever he got upset. Just as he began to find his happy place, the relaxing and tranquilizing scene around him began to evaporate when he heard his teacher give the OK for the students to get up from their seats and pass out valentines. Bruce hesitantly grabbed the gifts for his Valentine that he had worked so hard to gather, his small palm getting sweatier as he tightened the grip he had on the flowers.

Gaggles of girls clumped together in the aisles between desks, all very loud as they exchanged valentines. In hushed voices, they whispered about who they hoped most to get a valentine from, the hands-down most handsome boy in all of the third grade: Warren Thomas, or Handsome Warren, as he was referred to by the girls of the third grade. His hair was blonde and always very neatly slicked back, not a single hair ever out of place. He was always dressed so nicely and seemed to have on a new pair of fancy shoes every day, nor did he ever wear the same outfit twice. Some of the third grade girls even said that his closet was probably the size of the classroom. Handsome Warren's eyes...well, they were just that. They were a beautiful baby blue color with flecks of green mixed in that you could see if you stood close enough to him. He had a soft face and pretty pink lips that when parted back for a smile, showed some of the whitest and straightest teeth that had ever been seen on a third grader. Most kids already had a filling by now, not Handsome Warren. He had a movie star smile, and some of the girls said that they had sworn that they'd seen Warren in a movie or commercial before. The much talked-about third grader seemed to have a new "girlfriend" just about every week or so, dumping them once he lost interest. Just last week it had been Penelope Baker, one of the prettiest third grade girls. He'd lost interest in her in a record one recess period.

The girls immediately stopped their conversation when they saw their classmate Bruce walk past them with flowers, chocolate, and a card in his hand. Their jaws all dropped for a moment, but they then began to giggle and whisper amongst themselves.

"He better not give those flowers to me. I'd throw them right back in his face."

"What a weirdo. Who would be his valentime anyways?"

"I don't even think his mom would wanna be his valentime!"

The brown-haired boy tried to ignore the words of his classmates, as he was so used to doing. All that mattered to him was delivering the gifts he was so very proud of to his valentine, who he had had quite a crush on for some time. At first he had doubted himself, but after a nice little pep talk from his mother, he was feeling much more confident in himself. He had stopped looking down and slouching so much, a huge first for him. The closer he got to his valentine, the more his heart began to pound in his ribcage. He wiped off his sweaty hand on his pants before coming to a stop at the desk of his crush. He took a deep breath, then smiled shyly.

"H-happy Valentine's Day," he stuttered in his usual soft voice. He held out the gifts and looked at his crush. "Wi-will you b-be my valentine?"

Warren Thomas stopped handing out his valentines for a moment to look at the little boy before him, holding out flowers, a card, and chocolate. He blinked his blue eyes, at a loss for words. The whole classroom was as well. With how quiet it had just gotten, you could probably hear a pin drop. All eyes were on Bruce, the class freak, and Warren, the ever so handsome and fair and charming Warren, waiting anxiously to see what their Handsome Warren would say or do to this...waste of space before him. Instead of speaking, Warren burst out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. The entire class followed suit, pointing and laughing at Bruce, who had been a fool enough to believe he would ever have a chance with someone like Warren Thomas. Was he out of his mind? And boys weren't supposed to give mushy, gushy valentines to other /boys/. It was just so...weird!

"What's wrong with you, you retard?!" Warren yelled at Bruce, suddenly angry. His face was red with embarrassment and anger, as his friends were already snickering under their breath and making jokes about him and Bruce sitting in a tree and K-I-S-S-I-N-G. He shoved Bruce slightly and repeated himself. Bruce could feel the tears pricking at his eyes, and he took a step back from Warren. His poor third-grader heart felt like it was being broken and then stomped on over and over again. He looked down at the gifts in his hands, then around at all his classmates laughing and pointing, and then finally back at Warren, whose blue eyes no longer looked so pretty.

"I-I just–" Warren shoved Bruce again, which caused the small boy to fall right on top of his box of chocolates, and the laughter increased in volume when everyone saw Bruce scramble to his feet and bend over to pick up the flowers and card, chocolate smeared all over the back of his nice dress pants.

"You just what, you freak? You're a waste of space, and no one's gonna ever like a nobody like you, Banner." Each word was like a stinging blow to Bruce's chest, and it was like Brian was standing over him all over again, kicking him and slapping him and telling him how worthless he was, how nobody loved him, how he was nobody. A soft sob left his lips as he looked down and held the flowers and card even tighter in his hands. Stupid, stupid, stupid...he scolded himself. Warren took the flowers and stomped on them before snatching the glitter-covered card and tearing it up, throwing the remnants of it in Bruce's face. "That's right, cry like the little baby you are. Little Baby Banner, crying for his mommy like he always does. Crybaby Banner! Wahh! Wahh!"

Desperate for an escape from the embarrassment and shame he felt, Bruce began to bolt towards the door. He fell right on the classroom floor after getting tripped by one of Warren's friends, and he could hear the laughter growing louder and louder as he lay there with his face on the coarse carpet. He cried and put his hands over his head as the class formed a circle around him to just laugh and point, closing his eyes tightly and wishing for it all to disappear. Wishing that he could just disappear.

But the laughter just got louder and louder and louder and louder...

 

**Author's Note:**

> So...how was that? Please leave a review below, and if this gets enough positive reviews, I'll write up a follow-up chapter! Thanks for reading! ^_^ 
> 
> -Aryana Sade


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